Maine by J.Courtney Sullivan.

A delightful read, with its summery cover it would be easy to guess that this was light beach fluff, it is not although there is humour and a sprinkling of magic throughout this book that alleviates some of the darkness.
The Kellehers an old Maine family anchor this book with the Matriarch Alice in the lead and Maggie, Kathleen and Ann Maire following in her formidable wake. At the heart of the book lies secrets and alcohol and the power they have to wreck and destroy lives.
Even the supporting characters are beautifully etched and realistic, with all their joys and sorrows, triumphs and achievements they are quite beguiling and with each chapter of this book narrated by either Alice, Kathleen, Ann Maire and Maggie the fullness of each life is developed, the back story to the families tale is brilliantly told.
I particularly enjoyed the intergenerational aspect of this book and how stories can be linked through the simplest of twine.
The book is faced paced and gritty, Alice and Ann Maire in particular are both formidable and vulnerable, peppered with humour, at its heart it is a book that shows you that the power of love is immense, you can love someone but not much like them at the same time. It would certainly make a great beach read but it is testimony to the writers ability that I could love this book during a cold, rainy winter right across the world, I have already ordered her first book as this is her second and I hadn't read her before.

Madeleine by Kate McCann

Madeleine was well written and very readable, the topic is not pleasant and there are parts of it that are quite wrenching. It is however a bizarre book in that some of what is said by Kate McCann simply doesn't ring true and I found that at the end of it my sympathy lay with Madeleine, not her parents.
Her disappearance in Portugal in 2007 sparked a media frenzy that reached across the world. The Portuguese authorities were to put it mildly lacklustre in their attempts to locate Madeleine, they make Laurel and Hardy look like a couple of genius'. The diving of in a hundred directions,the private jets, the superstars, the Pope, the Prime Ministers, this one and that one no matter how well meaning lend this tome a pantea of unbelievability, surrealism and a kind of what were they thinking that leaves you wondering despite their protestations who it really was about and yes I know one should not judge what one not has experienced but hell if one of my girls had vanished Mr D most certainly would not be rushing off to Washington to find out what they do to find Missing Children and at that point in time it appears both tacky and unwarranted. All the McCanns research has not located Madeleine nor found any other missing child, it is all well and good to say leave No Stone Unturned but when your child is missing you would imagine that all your efforts would be focused on finding her by practical means and her alone. The Portuguese authorities really should hang their heads in shame as if there was a killer amongst the group of people surrounding the Resort the McCanns were staying in, that person should have been brought to justice.
It is to be hoped that Madeleine will walk through the door one day and get to live her life.
I found this to be a disturbing book and not for the reasons I imagined I would when I picked it up, there was much that left me wondering what if and what really happened on May 3 2007.